Aircraft stand recovery optimization

Abstract

Systems and methods for allocating flights to aircraft stands are provided. In one example aspect, a system includes one or more computing devices. The computing devices are configured to generate a stand recovery plan that reallocates flights to available aircraft stands following a flight schedule disruption. Flights associated with an aircraft stand conflict can be reallocated to aircraft stands that are available within a determined time slot, by ensuring that the available aircraft stands meet one or more scheduling constraints or criteria, and based at least in part on a determined weighted total walk time. The weighted total walk time takes into account the estimated walk time between aircraft stands and / or their associated gates as well as the connecting time between flights. Once aircraft stands are reallocated to flights associated with the identified aircraft stand conflict(s), a stand recovery plan can be generated in real time.

Description

PRIORITY INFORMATION[0001]The present application claims priority to Indian Patent Application Number 201911005447 filed on Feb. 12, 2019.FIELD[0002]The subject matter of the present disclosure relates generally to aircraft stand plans, and more particularly, to generating optimized aircraft stand plans after one or more disruptions and / or scheduling conflicts.BACKGROUND[0003]Airports typically include a plurality of aircraft stands or bays. Generally, an aircraft stand is a designated area in which an aircraft can be parked at an airport or airfield, e.g., so that passengers can board or disembark from the aircraft. Aircraft stands typically have an associated gate. A gate is a designated passenger waiting and boarding / disembarking area within a terminal of an airport. A boarding bridge can provide a pathway for passengers to move between the gate and an aircraft parked in the aircraft stand.[0004]In addition to creating flight schedules or plans, airline operators have conventiona...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]Aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.

Problems solved by technology

Such disruptions can cause the flight schedule to change, even when close to the flight time of a given flight.

When such disruptions occur close to the time of flight, an airline operator's network operations center has little time to react and generate an updated stand plan.

Accordingly, this can lead to adoption of a less than optimal updated stand plan and instability in the airline operator's network due to many changes in the stand plan close to the time of flight, which in turn can affect ground operations.

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